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tracyshomesick · 3 years

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25 things that were invented in NYC.

1. Toilet paper: In 1857, Joseph C. Gayetty began selling packs of “medicated paper for the water closet” out of his wholesale shop at 41 Ann St. The paper was made from pure Manila hemp and treated with aloe. Best (or worst) of all, each sheet was watermarked with his name.

2. Chicken ’n’ waffles: After its 1938 opening, Wells Supper Club in Harlem was the last stop for jazz greats like Sammy Davis Jr., Gladys Knight and Nat King Cole. Catering to its night-owl talent, Wells created the perfect dish for acts who’d missed dinner but couldn’t wait till breakfast: leftover fried chicken on a sweet waffle.

3. Chewing gum, a New York invention, was first manufactured in 1870 by Thomas Adams in a warehouse on Front Street. Called ''Adams New York Gum No. 1,'' it was made from chicle, a form of sapodilla tree sap chewed in the Yucatan and Guatemala.

4. The Waldorf Salad: The Waldorf Astoria boasts two inventions on this list, the first of which is its classic salad, which combines lettuce, apple, celery and walnuts. It was first served in 1896.

5. Teddy Bears: In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt refused to shoot an injured black bear while on a hunt. Inspired by the story, Morris and Rose Michtom, candy-store owners from Brooklyn, sewed a plush bear and displayed it, calling it “teddy’s bear.” The toy was so popular, they gave up candy and opened a factory to make the cuddly critters.

6. The Tom Collins: In 1874, a hilarious joke swept through the city: A prankster would tell a friend, “I was at [insert local saloon], where Tom Collins was saying [insert insult] about you!” The offended party would rush off to defend his honor, but there was no Tom Collins. (Cool joke, bro.) Inspired by the prank, New York mixologist Jerry Thomas created the recipe in 1876.

7. Coal-fired pizza: Pizza was cooked with wood fires until Gennaro Lombardi introduced the tasty magic of coal. Legend has it he served the first coal-fired pie in 1905. Cooking pizza that way is technically illegal now, but the ovens of a few select haunts around the city were grandfathered in, including Lombardi’s, Totono’s and Patsy’s.

8. Scrabble: Out-of work architect and anagram lover Alfred Mosher Butts conceived this wordy board game in 1931 while living in Jackson Heights, Queens. The street sign on Butts’s corner in Queens now reads “35t1H4 a1V4e1n1u1e1” after the famed letter-scoring system.

9. Spaghetti primavera: When this faux Italian dish (fresh vegetables and Parmesan cream sauce on pasta) was served at Le Cirque in 1977, it was, according to The New York Times, “the most talked-about dish in Manhattan,” much to the chagrin of head chef Jean Vergnes. The classically trained Frenchie was so offended, his cooks had to prep the dish in a hallway—yet later he claimed its invention.

10. The remote control: Nikola Tesla conceived of a radio-controlled boat way back in 1898. The idea was so novel that nobody believed such technology could exist.

11. Sweet’n Low: Fort Greene entrepreneur Benjamin Eisenstadt teamed up with his chemist son, who found a way to create saccharin in powdered form (before it could only be a liquid or a pill). He named his pink-label brand after a Tennyson poem.

12. Eggs Benedict: Stockbroker and bon vivant Lemuel Benedict woke up one morning in 1894 with a raging hangover and booked it to the Waldorf Astoria hotel, where he ordered a poached egg, crispy bacon, toast and hollandaise sauce. Legendary maître d’hôtel Oscar Tschirky was such a fan of the creation, he added it to the hotel’s menu.

13. The Bloody Mary:  Fernand “Pete” Petiot imported his tomato-juice-and-vodka concoction from Paris to the St. Regis hotel’s King Cole Bar. Catering to the spicier local tastes, Petiot added Worcestershire sauce, lemon and a dash of cayenne and black pepper.

14. Credit Cards: You have John Biggins of the Flatbush National Bank to thank for those interest charges and late fees: In 1946, he created the charge-it program, which issued customers bank credit cards for use at local Brooklyn merchants. The shop owners would then deposit the sales slips at the bank, who would then bill cardholders.

15. Baked Alaska: In 1876, the pioneering pastry chefs of lower-Manhattan restaurant Delmonico’s conceived of piping-hot sponge cake topped with crispy meringue and filled with ice cream, naming this miracle of food science in honor of the country’s newest territory.

16. General Tso’s Chicken: While exiled in Taiwan after the Chinese Civil War, chef Peng Chang-Kuei created a spicy-and-sour chicken dish as an homage to a famous Hunanese general. When he jumped ship to New York in the 1970s and opened Peng’s, the dish became a huge hit— after he added sugar to the recipe.

17. Frozen Hot Chocolate:  Stephen Bruce, the cofounder of iconic East-Side restaurant Serendipity 3, kept the recipe of this decadent dessert a secret for 40 years. Bruce recently revealed that the famous frozen treat is 14 kinds of cocoa mixed with crushed ice and topped with whipped cream. (The types of cocoa still remain a mystery.)

18. Air conditioning: In 1902, Willis Carrier created his “apparatus for treating air” to keep the humidity from warping the paper at a printing plant on Grand St in Bushwick. Saving workers from the sweltering summer heat was just a fortunate side effect.

19. The Reuben Sandwich: Alright, this one’s contested, but many say Arnold Reuben, owner of Reuben’s Delicatessen, invented the meat-and-krout combo in 1914. Legend has it, the sandwich was created for a famished actress, who came in after a show, using the few ingredients left on the deli shelves.

20. Mr. Potato Head: When New Yorker and toy designer George Lerner first created plastic facial features to stick on real vegetables, toy companies worried that food wasting wouldn’t fly with a postwar public. But in 1952, Hasbro bought Lerner’s  idea and made the first TV ad ever for children’s playthings, selling a million units that year.

21. Hot dogs: Coney Island baker Charles Feltman had the genius idea to serve hot sausages in a  bun for a dime each. His frank fortune bought him a beachside empire of hotels and beer gardens, until former employee Nathan Handwerker opened Nathan’s Famous and sold his dogs for only a nickel.

22. ATMs: the first money-dispensing device was conceived in 1939 by Luther George Simjian, who convinced the City Bank of New York (today’s Citibank) to test his contraption for six months. The bank declined to use the machine after that, because “the only people using the machines were a small number of prostitutes and gamblers.”

23. Cronuts: Dominique Ansel labored for months to perfect his doughnut-fried, fluffy hybrid from heaven. The pastry, which debuted in May 2013, still inspires down-the- block lines each morning.

24. Children's Museums: The Brooklyn Children's Museum, located in Crown Heights, opened in 1899 and was the country’s first museum dedicated to the education of kids. It was also the first to introduce a “hands-on” policy for its exhibits.

25. Hip-hop. Enough said.

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carelessgraces · 4 years

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@valiantsword said: “ It’s not a choice everyone has. ” ( hawke dialogue | accepting )

"Mm. I don’t know if I buy that.”

She holds the bottle out for him to take, her own glass refilled. It’s an unexpected visit — then again, all the best ones are — but a welcome one. The night is clear, and crisp, the kind of autumn night that inspires people, and she’s closed down the shop early, brought Arthur up to the flat above where she stays when she comes to Dublin, settled with a bottle of wine and the pastries she’d bought the night before between them. The balcony where they sit is covered in plants, and below them, the city is buzzing, the way it always does. Dublin feels alive beneath them, and she pauses only long enough to breathe it all in.

“I think that when you’re in a bind, when it comes down to deciding whether you’re going to die holding fast to your convictions or live and find a new way to go about it — I think it’s still a matter of deciding whether you will live with it, not whether you can. The truth of the matter is that surviving is a lot easier than people want to believe: your body will do it for as long as it can. You let your body take over, and you can live until it breaks down.

“But whether or not you will live, that’s something else entirely. There just... there comes a point when you have to decide what’s more precious, your life or your integrity, and what will let you do what needs to be done. Any fool can die for something. But living with it? Living with having to make the impossible decisions, and trying to mitigate the damage? Living with doing something unthinkable if it means you’ll see tomorrow? That’s something else entirely, and I think anyone can choose that. Anyone can survive it.”

Astoria takes a long drink, stares out over the city. He’s a long way from Illinois — she had given him her card after a chat and a drink while sightseeing, so it’s hardly a surprise that he’d found her, if he’d been looking. After a beat, she sets her glass down and she looks at him, rests her chin in her hand and her elbow on the table and offers up a smile that says we can be honest here. There is no need for a lie.

“Did you come all this way for the pleasure of my company and some drunken philosophizing?” she asks, and she scrunches her nose, tone light and expression mirthful. “Not that I’m opposed, mind. You’re good company. But it’s a long flight from Chicago just for some conversation.”

#valiantsword #v. it hurt for the first few times but at last i've learned to love a little blood in my wine. ( main timeline: modern witch | collector )#i. here's the truth from my red lips. ( answers )#(i actually haven't seen tog yet? it's on my list and i'm gonna try to get to it this weekend)#(so i'm not sure how well the modern witch verse would mesh w/ this but !!!)#(if you want me to change anything / use another verse lmk !! c: )

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jeffery64-love · 4 years

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Food Trucks: From Fad to Fixture

America's most recent food rage truly isn't so new. Simply return to your youth summers when the main thing that could separate ball games or pool parties other than a mother's voice was the sweet alarm call of the frozen yogurt truck folding into your neighborhood taco food truck .

Take that picture - aside from supplant kids with business experts and change out the frozen yogurt man for a gourmet cook - and you have food trucks, going to a city close you...if they haven't showed up as of now.

Experiencing childhood in Morocco, Yassir Raouli probably never heard a frozen yogurt truck's tune. Yet, in the wake of attempting different endeavors in New York City - tending to tables, overseeing night clubs and opening a web based attire shop - Raouli concocted a thought, Bistro Truck, that could convey him to retirement.

"I did research, and I needed to begin a café. I generally needed to have my own place," he says. "What appeared well and good was the food truck."

On the off chance that you actually haven't got on, the food truck is actually what it says it is. A whole café, from the kitchen to the sales register, is independent in a truck or van. Food truck proprietors, who regularly serve as the culinary experts, drive their cafés to the individuals as opposed to letting the individuals come to them. From that point you begin to see contrasts.

There are food trucks that cook just to the lunch group, and others to just the supper surge; some do both. Various food trucks are itinerant, posting a week's-worth of areas on destinations, for example, Twitter and Facebook and making them dependent on their clients' Internet keen to direct them to their present areas. Others, similar to Raouli's activity, are stopped day by day at a similar spot in a similar neighborhood.

It's the accentuation put on the nature of food that characterizes the current flood of food trucks. Beside the admired frozen yogurt man, individuals have been eating road food in the United States for quite a long time - at wiener trucks in Chicago or rascal remains in Boston. However, throughout the most recent couple of years clients the nation over have had the joy of heap gastronomic alternatives. Los Angeles has a legitimate taco truck (Takosher). Kronic Krave Grill serves South American arepas four days every week in downtown Austin, Texas. What's more, of course, in Portland, Ore., proprietors pushed the quite sensitive cutoff with Kim Jong Grillin', a Korean BBQ food truck named after the dubious North Korean tyrant.

"I think we sort of changed it," Raouli says of Bistro Truck's menu, whose every day specials highlight things like chilled watermelon soup, kofta kebabs and strawberry panna cotta. "We were one of the first to offer gourmet food."

Regardless of whether Raouli led the gourmet food truck insurgency might be doubtful, yet the accomplishment of his Bistro Truck is unquestionably not. In late August 2010, on the one-year commemoration of its opening, Bistro Truck was named one of five finalists for New York City's yearly Vendy Awards, a food truck rivalry whose particular name misrepresents the serious earnestness of the occasion.

Bistro Truck's selection should give the business some genuinely necessary reputation that can counterbalance the hindrances confronting food trucks. For instance, at conventional cafés any accident can be alleviated by a pastry or mixed drink on the house. Food truck proprietors, in any case, are frequently restricted to an early introduction. Supporters get in line, request their food, make the installment, get their food and go. There's so brief period for connection with the clients that the merchant must nail the experience to guarantee rehash business and positive informal.

Then again, there is the benefit of closeness. "We cook everything before individuals, so we have a one-on-one collaboration with a client - better than what we would have at a café," Raouli says.

That is the specific explanation Fares "Freddy" Zeidaies - three-time Vendy finalist and the champ of the current year's Vendy Cup - got into the business. He has the experience of already possessing a physical eatery, one that produced strong business however left him unfulfilled.

"I concluded I would not like to do it any longer," Zeidaies says. "It was awful. It was not me. What I need is to be around the individuals, not simply around the kitchen."

So almost nine years prior Zeidaies rethought himself as "The King of Falafel and Shawarma." He began paying rent to a stopping meter as opposed to a proprietor. Zeidaies loyally stations his King of Falafel food truck at a similar crossing point in the Astoria people group of Queens, serving Middle Eastern cooking. Zeidaies is unquestionably more happy with his road activity. "I love it when they offer me that go-ahead," he says, however he additionally alerts conventional restaurateurs from gullibly getting into the food truck business.

Inquired as to whether customary eatery aptitudes mean food trucks, Zeidaies says not really. "I thought it was so comparable, yet not presently," he says. "I once had a decent full head of hair; I was solid. Presently I have an awful knee and I'm drained by the day's end. At a café, in the event that you would prefer not to go in, you have workers or an administrator who can dominate. You can call an office and they'll send you a sous gourmet expert. Yet, not at a road café."

Furthermore, the underlying test of finding a parking space in any case, food truck sellers must arrangement with the common components. "You need to get out in the blistering climate, the chilly climate," Zeidaies proceeds, which may clarify why food trucks are blasting in atmosphere well disposed spots like Southern California.

The components are just aspect of the troubles. Gay Hughes, proprietor of the Original Mobile Tea Truck, which advanced around suburbia of Boston for quite a long time, really sold her truck in May 2010 and now works an effective extended Mobile Tea Shoppe, a stand she sets up at ranchers' business sectors and art shows.

About working the truck, Hughes says, "Every town had its own muddled arrangement of legalities. I frequently set up at the National Park destinations since it was simpler managing the Federal government than the neighborhood organizations - that should state everything." Hughes likewise noticed the strenuous physical requests of the activity. "All the all over, bowing and lifting...Frankly, it was very hard on my body."

There are additionally those restricted living arrangements to battle with. "You have around eight feet [of space], and every individual needs to man a station," Zeidaies says, clarifying that his truck has one individual managing the flame broil, one cooking the rice, another setting up the sauces and a fourth individual covering the everything else (the sales register, packing the food, and so on.). Restricted space additionally influences the underlying prep work.

"With a truck, you need to discover leaving, and afterward you need to prepare all your food once you arrive," Bistro Truck's Raouli says. "It takes about an hour to 90 minutes after you discover your spot."

The image Zeidaies and Raouli paint may drive away intrigued restaurateurs. Or then again, quite possibly, they need to restrict their opposition, since the two of them concur that food trucks, in contrast to other brief crazes, will stay a solid, but unusual, presence in the eatery business.

"The food truck business, on the off chance that you do it well, you will effective," Raouli says. "We live in a city where you have intense pundits, and individuals' desires are high. The best will be here for quite a while and the most fragile will be gone before they know it."

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curiouspersephone-blog · 5 years

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hello hello! nice to meet y’all! i’m rey and i’m here with Persephone! Thanks for being a little patient with me, I’ve been traveling this week for a wedding. Anyway, I’m excited to bring you my take on my gal Cora here and can’t wait to interact you. Give this a like and I’ll slip into your DMs to plot.

Mortal Name: Cora Sherburn

Deity: Persephone

Job / Occupation: Investigative Journalist, New York Times

Neighborhood: Astoria

“backstory”:

Her first home was in Washington D.C. In D.C. she grew like a weed, all tangled and wild. Cora was born under a spring moon and when she was born, she did not cry out - she only blinked into this world with large, curious eyes. This curiosity stayed for many years to come. Cora Sherburn was, plain and simple, the cat curiosity killed. As soon as she was old enough to, she was sticking her fingers into sweets that weren’t meant for her, poking her nose into circumstances that didn't belong to her, always sneaking into conversations she had no business being part off. When she was caught, she always offered a wide-eyed gaze and an innocent smile. With these two weapons of mass destruction under her belt, Cora got away with plenty as a small child. (It was around this time that Cora learned that you could hide just about anything behind a smile.)

But all of this was done with genuine, good-natured intent. Cora liked to know things and found great joy in taking things apart and putting them back together again. Yes, she grew like a weed, all tangled and wild - but under the nurturing care of her mother she bloomed.

Jonathan was a Senator for the state of New York, while Dahlia was Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. It wasn’t a marriage built to last - the two found to many differences in between them and while they never officially signed for divorce (for the sake of appearances), Dahlia moved herself from the heart of D.C. to Manhattan when Cora was barely old enough to remember. Cora wouldn’t know this about her mother till much later, but Dahlia was also inflicted with a disease (Huntington’s, they called it,) that would pass down to her genetically. Cora wouldn’t learn about this till she was at least twenty-two and she wouldn’t feel it in her blood till she was at least twenty-seven. And she wouldn’t come to learn till much, much later that she would always have a peculiar relationship with death.

Cora’s second home was amongst the brownstones of Manhattan where she continued growing up enjoying nice things. Some might write off the pleasure the girl took in aesthetics and material things as shallow or vain, but she liked to things because at her heart, Cora was a tinkerer and an explore. Things - old things, new things, shiny things - piqued her curiosity. In high school, she was a likable gal, though just a little too left of center be considered popular. More accurately, she had a tendency to run with a sharper, meaner sort, while managing to preserve her kindness. College came and went, Yale with its artistic sensibilities was a strong fit for her. She found her mother’s work too boring and found, instead, a calling in investigative journalism.

Now, Cora’s third and final home is an apartment in Astoria. Her a small studio apartment is equidistant from a 24 hour bookstore and a 24 hour pastry shop. Cora, who has always had a strong affinity for flora, picked an apartment that has plenty of sunlight for her and her planter boxes as well. When she isn’t sleeping in her bed, she’s crashing on her couch in her office (yet another space filled with too many succulents.) Cora’s managed to make quite the name for herself as an investigative journalist for The New York Times and while such a position comes with plenty of friends, it also comes with it’s fair share of enemies.

BACKSTORY:

Persephone, Goddess of the Spring. Queen of the Underworld. Curious. Stubborn. Patient. Knew what she was getting into when she ate those pomegranate seeds. Wife of Hades. Proud Dog Mom.

wanted connections:

give them all! I want the friends she’s in book clubs with, I want the horrible break ups, I want the slightly dangerous people she’s investigating. Very open to plotting and figuring it out! Just give this kiddo a like and I’ll slip into your DMs.

#ohq:intro #( about )#( im probably going to rewrite this but this felt like a strong start !! )

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aestheticvoyage2019 · 5 years

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Day 138: Saturday May 18, 2019 - “Detroit Never Left”

Among the hustle of the top breakfast joint in ‘The D’ I sipped my coffee and took note of the stickers behind the bar, focusing on one in particular that simply stated “Detroit Never Left” - on the ride up this morning from Toledo, Audrie checked her curiosities as she found us a good place for brunch “isnt Detroit really run down and bankrupt?” I shared with enthusiasm the history and spirit of the place and countered with “yea, but its making a comeback in a lot of ways” - I assured her, I think you’ll really like it - its not what you think. I told her of the old architecture and as she picked out a place to eat literally right in the heart of that, I couldnt wait to park and walk her around. She’d fist bump Joe Louis, and ponder the Spirit Statue as I told her stories about growing up as a kid in Michigan - Tigers, Pistons, Lions - coming to Detroit was a big deal. It was my place that I could claim as I ventured out in the world, even though I grew up in the farm country far from here. Despite having a different zipcode, the working class roots and culture of this city, permeates the state, built on the auto factory, unions, and jobs. This isnt the high class of New York or Chicago. This place is hard, in a way that Tony Bourdain, Eminem, Bill Laimbeer, and myself, could love. Its hard in a way that the people who love it, embody too, as if their history means something important and work saving too. I realized at the end of the day, as we left, that I was wrong in citing a comeback - its true Detroit is what its always been; Detroits never left. And it felt good, for me, the one actually making the come-back, to share it with my partner. We didn’t have a plan - the whole detour here being sparked by Audrie exclaiming a shocking fact, among all the places shes been - “Ive never been to Detroit” and so, understanding that she couldnt know what its really about, and knowing that no one could unveil it for her like me, we popped up to spend the day. Didnt have a plan, just wanted it to unfold naturally. We went to the Dime Store in the old Chrysler place for a great meal and great service - getting our meals direct from the owner! Fresh popping Pork Rinds, a BLTE, coffee, mimosa, local cider, omelette. With an hour wait to get on our stools, we strolled around an I introduced her to Joe Louis’ statue and who he was, and a block over, the Spirit of Detroit and what that meant. We then walked to Greektown, past the old town hall and the sculptures there, finally landing at the Astoria pastry shop where we got sweets and treats off all kinds, including some gluten free goodness for AC. By the time our brunch was over, AC already had a totally different feel free this hard, easily stereotyped place.

We then went up the road, past CoPa, skipping the baseball this day, to find instead, the Eastern Market. The sun had come out making it a beautiful day for the historic open air market, the largest historic public market district in the United States. The walls vibrantly painted with a variety of murals, the open air live music festive feel of Berts, and the never-ending trails of vendors selling produce, plants, and other accoutrements. As we walked through one of the historic buildings, it dawned on my that I had $20 in my pocket and our next planned stop would be in South Bend to visit AC’s grandma - we should buy some flowers here! And so we picked out a place that offered some expert guidance and came away with two flats of good spring Michigan flowers. Not only had we walked and seen the place, we were coming away now with something important yet unplanned. Bingo Bango. No food desert here in the heart of Detroit. It felt like a Sprouts zapped full of energy and good people. My people - Pure Michigan. From the Market, we strolled over a few blocks to find the Detroit City Distillery where Rachael Ray’s entourage had a similar Saturday afternoon idea. We sat at the bar and ordered some craft cocktails - I chose excellently. I went with the Butcher Choice Bourbon, and Audrie a flight of Gin, some that we’d bring home with us. This is the revitalization of Detroit - craftsmanship lives on in different media. We got to know the patrons beside, sharing stories of the Mit and the Desert. Old fashion meets new fun. As we closed our tabs, and finished our drinks, it was a little sad knowing that our time in this great place would be coming to an end. But I had one more trick up my sleeve. After dragging my partner to breweries near and far, we’d only ever gone out of the way to visit a special cider house or meadery a few times - the stand outs being Woodchuck and Superstition. And so, with one of her favorites being just 8 miles up the road in Ferndale, it was one last delicious surprise at B. Nektar that would bring us home and get added to that list. Audrie rang up a solid tab of small samples of delights, headlined by Zombie Killer, which now she can say she drank in the mother ship. Outside, a big lilac bush blew, and before steaming our way out of town down 8 mile road, Eminem turned up to 11, we stole some of the purple bouqets that we cant get in the desert, to add to our rented mini-van to smell on our trip from here to Indiana. We’ll be back some day for sure, for a Tigers game, or maybe just more random food and drink and sights like we did today - and when we do, we’ll remember and laugh about the first time we came - the stories of this day. From the Dime to 8 mile. Detroit gave us a great Saturday and it felt good to feel close to home for a bit.

Never again, in her life, will Audrie have to use the words “Ive Never Been To Detroit” and I can take the satisfaction of knowing that she enjoyed this place in a way that she could appreciate and love, and not just a check on a map but as a soulful place enmeshed meaning, history, character, and charm, and one with a place in our roots; a place she can love, as I do.

Song: Peter Cetera - The Glory of Love

Quote: “There are cities that get by on their good looks, offer climate and scenery, views of mountains or oceans, rockbound or with palm trees; and there are cities like Detroit that have to work for a living, whose reason for being might be geographical but whose growth is based on industry, jobs. Detroit has its natural attractions: lakes all over the place, an abundance of trees and four distinct seasons for those who like variety in their weather, everything but hurricanes and earth-quakes. But it’s never been the kind of city people visit and fall in love with because of its charm or think, gee, wouldn’t this be a nice place to live.” ― Elmore Leonard

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travelonlinetipsofficial · 3 years

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10 Best Romantic Restaurants in Rome

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10 Best Romantic Restaurants in Rome

In planning the most romantic holiday of your life in Rome, the one thing you’ll need to know before you get there is where to eat. After all, what goes hand in hand with love and romance if not food?

The eternal city is full of restaurants and bars and whether it’s a trattoria, pizzeria, a gelato or Michelin star dining experience you’re after, you can bet you’ll find it in the eternal city.

But that special romantic occasion, say a proposal or an anniversary or for when you really want to impress on Valentine’s Day, make a booking in advance at the best restaurant in Rome – if not Italy – La Pergola. Located at the Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria, it boasts 3 Michelin Stars and is the only one of its kind in Rome. Featuring a terrace with a spectacular view of the city, not to mention the food and wine, this is a once in a lifetime dining experience. For another terrace experience with views you won’t soon forget, Mirabelle doesn’t disappoint and Adelaide is one of the new gems in Rome, located at the elegant Hotel Vilon.

Other favourites, boasting a star in the Michelin Guide include Francesco Apreda’s Idylio, located within the stylish Pantheon Iconic Hotel, Domenico Stile’s art deco Enoteca La Torre, Cristina Bowerman’s Glass Hostaria and Riccardo Di Giacinto’s All’Oro. Each with their own personality, the atmosphere or the food won’t disappoint. For the hottest addresses in town, you can’t beat Retrobottega or Pianostrada and for young, fresh and fun fine dining, head to Antonio Ziantoni’s Zia in Trastevere.

Happy eating in the city of love!

Walking along Via dell’Arancio you could be mistaken for missing Hotel Vilon. This luxury boutique hotel sits inconspicuously in Rome’s high end Tridente shopping district and is an elegant and nicely hidden plush gem. The in-house restaurant Adelaide, is an ode to the Princess Borghese, former resident of this historic site. Procida native, Chef Gabriele Muro has devised a stylish and eclectic menu that brings together his coastal heritage, international experience and local produce. Seasonally changing, find dishes like his gragnano grain spaghetti ‘ajo, ojo e baccalà’ with salt cod, the roast octopus (polpo in Italian), entertainingly entitled Polp Fiction and one of his signature dishes, the tender braised veal cheeks on the menu. The roman classic pastas including the carbonara and amatriciana make an obligatory appearance too. Open at lunch and dinner, enjoy the warm hospitality of Adelaide away from the chaos of Rome. Be sure to say hi to Magdalena Rodriguez, the expert bar mixologist who will prepare a spectacular aperitif or after dinner drink for you. METRO: Spagna

Recommended for Romantic Dining because: Modern and elegant dining, right by the Colosseum is a win-win combination.

Maria’s expert tip: Arrive early and have a ridiculously good cocktail in the lounge bar.